It’s one of Europe’s greatest sites – and everyone does it wrong

I must admit I hesitated myself. Paying €19 ($34) seems steep for what might appear to be just another castle visit in Europe. If you go in the off-season, it will still cost you €13.

I’m not the only one put off. Carcassonne’s streets swarm with visitors but only a fraction enter the castle or clamber around the rampart walk. Big mistake, as it turns out.

If you’ve come all this way and spent thousands on travel, spend another €19 on the full rampart walk, only opened in late 2024 after several years of repair works. You’ll be gobsmacked by what you see, and what you see is what Carcassonne is all about.

Carcassonne is in south-west France halfway between Toulouse and Montpellier, both worthy destinations too. It’s one of the top 10 most-visited sights outside Paris, yet few people see it the right way.

For most, a visit means shuffling through the walled city’s dozen streets which, lined by ice-cream and souvenir shops, aren’t much different from those in any other European old town.

Everyone seems happy to spend €19 on a mediocre tourist meal, a fridge magnet or a plastic replica sword. But look up: the best thing about Carcassonne is its intact double layer of concentric fortifications topped by 52 towers.

It’s Europe’s largest best-preserved medieval fortified town, and if you experience the fortifications up close you’ll be mighty impressed.

Access to the ramparts that take you right around and above the old town is only from the Chateau Comtal, which admittedly itself is nothing special, housing only a small museum of fusty provincial artefacts.

But the ramparts are to be slowly savoured. They’re a pop-up textbook example of historical construction on a massive scale that first started with the Visigoths and continued for 2000 years, with famous architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc notably adding imaginative restorations in the 19th century.

The walk is three kilometres around, clockwise only, with no escape route, up and down many flights of narrow steps that lead you through towers and along galleries and over gates below.

You get a soldier’s eye view of medieval defences, which are well explained and illustrated by information boards in English. You can also follow an audio guide, which costs another €3.

Take your time. Squint through arrow slits, peer down holes once used to shove stones and boiling water on invaders, and inspect the mountings where weapons were once used.

You get sweeping views down onto new Carcassonne and the surrounding countryside. You get views onto the medieval town’s rooftops and into its streets. You get a wonderful elevated look at the side facade of the Gothic-era Saint-Nazaire Basilica, after which the ramparts just get ever more impressive.

The other thing that most people don’t do is walk around the city walls from the outside, which is free. On that walk, you’ll barely encounter another person in this busiest of tourist old towns.

Go anticlockwise from the Porte Narbonnaise or Narbonne Gate, particularly in the late afternoon when the light is wonderful. You’ll see a dirt track worn through the long grass that dips and rolls. You’ll have a bit of scrambling at one point as the path falls down the hillside near the Porte d’Aude, but then it joins a much more substantial path.

You don’t get the same excellent perspective as you do from the ramparts, but you still get a terrific up-close look at immense walls and towers that rise above you like skyscrapers. The views are marvellous.

In short, do Carcassonne from above and from the outside. Almost everybody else does it only from the inside, and misses out on a great treat.

THE DETAILS

Fly
Toulouse airport is an hour’s drive from Carcassonne, which is also well connected by intercity and high-speed trains to other French cities. See sncf-connect.com

Stay
Mercure Carcassonne La Cité is a short walk outside the medieval town walls and has a restaurant, pleasant terrace and swimming pool. Rooms from €154 ($274) a night. See accor.com

More
tourisme-carcassonne.fr

The writer travelled at his own expense.